DOT's cable guys

The main expressway leading east from Raleigh is U.S. 64/264 (it splits near Zebulon). A beautiful road it is, too, with the exception of multiple stretches where the safety cables strung in the median to prevent crossover accidents have been mangled to the point of uselessness. Now, at least, the state Department of Transportation has realized that timely repairs are urgently important.

The word came from Secretary Lyndo Tippett on Friday. Highway medians will inspected weekly for safety barrier damage, Tippett announced, and non-functioning guardrails or cables will be marked. Contractors will be notified within 24 hours, and they will be expected to make repairs right away.

What a turnabout from the DOT's approach that had contributed, indirectly, to the deaths of three people as a result of a Christmas Day wreck. Their car was rammed by an SUV that had veered across the U.S. 64/264 median near Wendell. Cables that should have prevented the crash had not been fixed after having been knocked down in previous mishaps. The spotlight of publicity in The N&O must have proved uncomfortable.

The old system had allowed many instances of damaged barriers to go unrepaired. The DOT was finding out about the damage not from regular inspections, but from accident reports filed by the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. A barrier breach deemed urgent was supposed to be fixed within a week, but all too often the breaches have been allowed to languish.

Following several cross-median crashes in past years -- the kind that occur all too readily when drivers lose control, perhaps from drowsiness or inattention or excessive speed -- North Carolina's highway officials properly moved to install median cables and other safety barriers on many miles of highway. Kevin Lacy, the state's traffic engineer, told The N&O's Bruce Siceloff that the barriers have saved more than 150 lives since 1994.

That is a good record. Now, the DOT's new sense of urgency -- if it is borne out in practice -- regarding repairs will help the state get full value from its investment and protect even more people who are simply going about their business when somebody heading in the opposite direction loses control.